Rebirth in Governance! February 24, 2015 Kosmos Online

Dear Readers,

This is a packed edition of Kosmos Online, and we do believe a vital one, mainly on the themes of transforming governance and global citizenship. Clearly, the two go hand-in-hand. We call for inspired leadership, as well as new forms of authentic participation in the political process at the bioregional, national and global levels. For the many who work tirelessly at the local and hyper-local levels, we know it is about scaling up now.

What is authentic participation? We share some ideas:

First, an opportunity to create an Act of Peace, with a few of your neighbors and friends. Kosmos is partnering with PeaceJam in what may be the largest global citizenship campaign to date!

A Kosmos interview with Sufi teacher Lewellyn Vaughan-Lee on what it means to be a global citizen of a living earth.

A Kosmos Overview of trends in participatory governance, highlighting the work of Tom Atlee and Steven Kull

An update from the Forum for a New World Governance

A Report on the World Citizens’ Movement: From Johannesburg 2014 to Tunis 2015

And a popular article from Kosmos Journal by Mark Gerzon, ‘Global Citizens – Part 1’ (Parts 1 and 2 are on our home page)

We also have some news about upcoming summer programs we hope will inspire you. And finally, we want to remind you about Kosmos Journal’s Call for Essays from our Readers.Sharing your words with us is yet another way you can participate in the continuing story of global transformation in harmony with all Life.

Please consider sharing some of the articles in this newsletter. We need to get the word out that participatory governance and global citizenship are on the rise. Kosmos Headquarters has been blanketed in snow this past month, yet spring is just around the bend and we are ready to greet it with renewed energy and new initiatives in service to our global family. Join us!

Deep peace,

Kosmos

Global Citizens, Part I

By Mark Gerzon

Once we recognize that global citizenship matters, many questions immediately arise. After all, what exactly does ‘global citizens’ mean? How are global citizens different from those who identify solely with their state or country? Do they have different, skills, abilities or attitudes—and if so, what are they?

Unfortunately, the media hype and academic buzz that surrounds the phrase ‘global citizen’ is often more distracting than helpful. ‘Global citizen’ is not a trendy, ready-to-wear eco-identity. It is not a hip ‘lifestyle’ that we adopt by turning down our thermostats, eating locally grown foods or driving a hybrid. No matter how good our intentions may be, declaring ourselves ‘citizens of the world,’ singing John Lennon’s ballad “Imagine,” and boldly proclaiming that we live in a borderless world is simply not enough.

One Billion Acts of Peace Rising

Kosmos is pleased to announce our partnership with PeaceJam and the One Billion Acts of Peace initiative, a five year effort promoted as potentially the largest global citizenship campaign to date. This initiative is supported by numerous groups, youth around the world, and many Nobel Laureates. You are invited to create your own Act of Peace – discover how.

INTERVIEW Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Global Citizens of a Living Earth

Interview by Rhonda Fabian

Kosmos: Teacher, what teaching from Sufism is most relevant for world leaders to hear at this time?

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: The central Sufi teaching of the unity of being—that all of creation is an expression and manifestation of an inner unity—is the most important mystical teaching at this time. The oneness, which the mystic knows in the depths of the heart and also experiences reflected in the outer world, needs to become central to a world at present driven by divisiveness.

We the People Have a few New Ideas about Governance

Collaboration, Participation and Deliberation are at the heart of the new Governance models.

Tom Atlee, of the Co-Intelligence Institute, has outlined ‘Deliberative Councils; Dr. Steven Kull, at Voice of the People proposes ‘Citizen Cabinets’. Both plans are gaining supporters, as are several other initiatives presented in this Kosmos Overview.

A New Dawn for World Governance

By Jean Rossiaud and the Forum for a new World Governance

The world-governance system so desperately needed today has necessarily to be multilateral. Confrontations are recurrent and growing in numbers, while economic, political, and military multilateralism is blocked by belligerent tensions and xenophobic ideologies. As a result, it has become all the more difficult now to lay the foundations for new institutions that will be adapted to all levels of governance, from local to global.

The World Citizens’ Movement – many paths, one direction

Kosmos is an enthusiastic participant in the World Citizens Movement. After two global conferences in Johannesburg in 2013 and 2014, that united 400 global citizens from all over the world, the next milestone is the World Social Forum in Tunis, building on the vision of the Johannesburg Compass.

Conference Report: Toward a world citizens’ movement – the story of the movement from Johannesburg 2014 to Tunis 2015 and beyond.
by Olivier Consolo – January 2015